June 11, 1998
Dear Everyone:
Within Information Management Services (IMS), we
have a group known as Research, Education and Training (RET).
Most of this is Library functions, looking things up in reference
books (or, more recently CD-ROM’s) and going out on the
Internet to find
things for customers. But it
also includes finding records in Versatile.
Likewise, the “education and training” are mostly
directed out to customers.
But the RET group has also taken as their mandate to provide some
training for the people in IMS.
So once a month they present, or at least sponsor, something
educational. These sessions
are cleverly scheduled to land on the same day as “Health and Safety
Awareness” programs up at Company Park, thus providing a complete
conflict between educational opportunities.
Since no one has time to attend training during the
regular day, RET training takes place at lunch time under the rather
cute title of “Lunch-N-Learn”.
Although, technically, you have to attend the training before you
get the free lunch, usually pizza.
A few months ago, several of us served as a panel to answer
questions about what would happen when we migrated to the GIL computers.
Another time, we listened to a presentation on Active Files in
“Martinez” (and what a treat that
was!)
Back in March, the subject was “Office
Etiquette” or, what
constitutes good (and bad) manners when living in Cubicleville.
It was presented on video as a series of skits in which people
behaved even more outrageously than usual to make a point.
It was quite fun, actually.
About a week after nearly each “Lunch-N-Learn”, a
pop quiz shows up via email with a prize to whoever gets all the answers
right the first time, just to see if anyone was paying attention.
Since I usually miss at least the beginning, or middle, of these
sessions (someone always needs help right about then), I seldom try to
enter the contest. But I had
the advantage in that I had been working in the Library when the skits
were being “produced” and actually knew all the answers.
I quickly printed the email, filled in the answers and turned the
quiz in.
For once in my life, I won.
What did I win?
Well, that wasn’t too clear.
Since “Elaine” had been in charge of that particular presentation
and quiz, it was up to her to produce a prize.
Being exceptionally brilliant (and on the distribution list for
the Weekly Letter), she picked out a couple of books of gift
certificates at the movie theater right near where I live.
So, certificates in hand, “Jeannie” and I walked
over to the theater last Sunday and spent 3-½ hours savoring the music,
costumes and set decoration of
Titanic,
again. There’s a film that
will make you glad you never had to wear a whale-bone corset.
Especially not while running the entire length and breadth of the
world’s largest ship.
Videos...
While on vacation, I rented five movies.
Unfortunately, I can only remember four of them by now.
So much for short term memory.
If I can’t remember it, it must not have been all that good.
I recommend skipping that one.
The Full
Monty. In a theater
full of people bent on having a good time, this movie was probably
hilarious. Alone at home, I
found it rather sadly sweet.
A half-dozen ordinary blokes, out of work in a steel town where all the
mills are closed, fetch up the idea making some quick money by putting
on a strip act. What starts
out as a fanciful lark gradually takes on a life of its own.
I enjoyed it, although I probably wouldn’t rent it again.
The
Jackal. This is a
remake of 1973’s
Day of
the Jackal, with
Bruce Willis,
Sydney Poitier
and Richard Gere.
Top honors go to Willis’s hairdresser.
As a “master of disguise”, Willis changes appearances constantly,
often with one wig on top of another.
He plays an assassin, one who kills far more people than is
necessary, while Poitier and Gere try to figure out 1) who he is; 2)
where he is; 3) what he looks like (today); and 4) who his target is
going to be. There’s a major
clue in the opening credits.
Ask yourself which star’s name appeared in the credits, even though you
haven’t seen him/her show up for at least the first hour and a half.
Mouse
Hunt. Two brothers,
as unlike each other as night and day, inherit a house together.
If they can work together, they can fix up the house and sell it
for all the money they’ll ever need.
There’s just one problem:
A mouse. A very
clever mouse. (Actually,
hundreds of mice, each trained to do one, single thing, like scale a
tulip to get to a shelf.)
Needless to say, the brothers just about annihilate each other and
obliterate the house in their quest to rid themselves of one mouse.
Like The Full Monty, this one was probably funnier in the theater.
But the mouse/mice is/are adorable.
And it has a happy ending.
Finally,
Michael
Collins. “Jeannie”
pronounced this one boring; but, this being the third time I’ve rented
it, I have to say that I find it fascinating.
Liam Neeson
plays the man who revolutionized the
rebellion in
Ireland,
bringing the country one step closer to independence in the early
1900’s. After 700 years, it
seems about time. The movie
has a discernibly pro-Irish slant, naturally.
But then, so did The Quiet
Man.
I stopped in at
Blockbuster
to see if I could remember what that fifth film was; but they already
had so many new titles in that they’d rearranged everything.
(Maybe this is a sign that it’s time to go rent some more.) I
think it started with an “M” (as you can see, I was in kind of an “M”
mode). Try anything starting
with “M”.
Love, as always,
Pete
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